Fountain Pen Day

Did you know that tomorrow marks the third ever fountain pen day? I can't remember how I came accross it but I did back in September and I think it was a reccommend on Twitter. I can't remember now but I guess it is not important.

I used to use a fountain pen back at school and I love it. Back then (we are talking the 90s - I left school in 1997) we had a marvellous shop in the town called Woolworths. Who remembers woolies?

Image credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Woolworths used to have a fabulous range of stationery and there back to school range as far as I remember it was far better than what I saw in the shops this year. I miss that shop so much, this is the actual shop pictured above that I used to frequent with my friends or with my Mum and it is where my pocket money used to go either on the pick and mix, the latest cassette (yes I said cassette) or on stationery. I have Woolworths to thank for my love of stationery!

I remember always having a pencil tin and in that tin was always at least two fountain pens all purchased from woolies. I never used to let anyone else borrow them as the few times that I did the nib always got buckled or bent. I don't think they were all that expensive but I loved them as they usually had cute little characters on them. Happy memories have been invoked just thinking about it. I used to love buying all my back to school stationery, I had a new set each term and I used to spend ages deciding as it had to all be just right.

Sadly for somereason that I can't remember, I stopped using my fountain pen, even though I went on to do my A-levels and then University. Did they stop making them or did they becoming un-trendy? Who knows but the trusty bic biro became my friend and nowadays it is the good old gel pen. That being said I really do want to get myself a fountain pen, I have been thinking about it for a while now and I have put one on my Christmas list.

I have heard really good things about the Lamy Safari so that is the one that I will be asking Father Christmas for but what colour! Arghhhh decisions, decisions! I love most of the colours but thinking in terms of versatility and putting it with a variety of things I guess I should go with the black.

It does look sleek and it would work well with any of my journals or Filofaxes. Come on we have to think nice co-ordination people. Who knows, if I am a good girl maybe I will be lucky enough to get one and rekindle my love with the fountain pen.

Are you a fountain pen user? Did you use one in school like I did? I would love to know your fountain pen story!

To find out more about fountain pen day visit their website: http://www.fountainpenday.org/

My current journal collection {part one}

This week I thought I would share with you my current journal collection as it has been a while since I did that. I last shared them with you in May last year and I like to take stock every now and then and look at the journals that I am using. I do this because I like to take time to think about whether they still serve a purpose for me and whether I still want to use them. I hope you also find this interesting and that it might inspire you to journal in some way, whatever way that would be for you.

So here are my journals:

Art Journal
I call my art journal such because it is the term that most people will understand or recognise, however I prefer to call it just my journal, my visual journal or indeed an artiststs journal. In that journal I like to create art as well as incorporate collage and writing.

Sometimes I paint for paints sake just because I have a desire to be creative, sometimes I use it for concept art to develop something else or to learn new techniques. I also like to part scrapbook by using photos and smashbook by adding receipts and flyers from places we have been.

Whatever it is, it is my journal and it is the documentation of my life, my place to process feelings and emotions and a place to be happy or spend time with myself.

No pressure journal
I won't go into this too much as I wrote a whole blog post dedicated to this last week

Written journal
I like to keep a written journal solely for, you guessed it, writing! I like to write reams and reams when the mood takes me and at the moment I am using my A5 Finsbury Filofax for that. I love the feel and quality of the leather and I also like the flexibility of the rings for changing things about. In that journal is my life documented in writing and everything that goes with that good and bad!

My Filofax
I am using my daily Filofax to complement my written journal. In the back of the Filofax  I have blank paper (lined) in case the urge to write hits me when I don't have my journal with me. I just write in her and then add it into my journal later on.

Sea Journal
This was a book that I picked up from a charity stand for 50p. Whilst I started this and intended it to be an altereed book all related to the sea and mermaids, I literally did two pages in it and then run out of motivation for it. I still keep it in my collection of current journals because I really like the book itself. One day I may go back to this but I am not sure but don't want to part with the gorgeousness of it just yet!

BOS
My BOS is my book of shadows

Sketchbook
This is just a cheapy sketchbook that I use for you guessed it, doodling. I use it to test and work out the little characters that then become the ones you see on my Filofax inserts and dashboards.

A whole lot more information on these journals as well as glimpses into them can be found in the video:

I hope you have enjoyed a little look into some of my journals. There are many more to come and I will share these with you next week!

Crayola Portfolio Oil Pastel Review and Artwork Share

For a long time now I have coveted the portfolio oil pastels from Crayola. When I was at college we were told to buy oil pastels but then we never ended up using them at all. Just as well I bought the mega mega cheap ones! They were so so cheap. I mean total cheapies at £2 for 48. Sufficient to say they were pretty useless too. They were dry and chalky not at all like oil pastels should be, all smooth and creamy.

Anyway I have never been that bothered that my oil pastels were next to useless but then I watched a video on youtube of a lady creating a page and she used oil pastels and I thought that they looked worth a go! (I can't remember what the video was now or the brand she used now).

I asked on the Art Geeks Facebook page if anyone had any recommendations for oil pastels and they all said the Portfolio ones so with that many recommendations I thought I had better get those ones lol!

Here is my review of using them for the first time along with a share of some of my artwork...

Explore You with collage

This week at college we moved on to collage to get us to look more at the shapes of things. When we draw it is easy to just get on with it but when we collage from still life we have to look more at the shapes so as to make the correct piece of collage material. I have to say I got on far better with this method and I had fun.

I started off doing  a collage of the still life in front of me and this is how it turned out:

And then I decided that I wanted to have some fun and do my own thing so I created this which is far more me as you can tell from the piece "Explore You"